Question about montipora color and PE

[ReefandClimb]

Ok folks here's the question:

I have recently achieved 0 nitrate and <.1 phosphate and since I have, it seems that my montipora (all varieties) are exhibiting poor polyp extension as compared to when I had 20-40 ppm nitrate and .15-.2 phosphate. The weird thing is that they're all growing well otherwise.(tho my superman monti faded terribly, I believe this is a par issue not relevant to parameters but I could be wrong).
Is it possible that I made my water "too" clean?

Any feedback is welcome and appreciated!
Thanks
Bill


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[dannyp02908]

It is entirely possible your water is too clean. If you want to keep those params, maybe feed your fish a little more. Corals actually do use some nitrate and phosphate. Also, when you get your nutrients down that low, you should make sure your alk is in the 8-8.4 range. Higher alk with lower nutrients can cause burnt tips. Also, the intensity of your lighting. With ulns systems, it takes longer to acclimate corals to high intensity lighting. Can cause bleaching.

 

[frank180reef]

You alk and calc are low

 

[jason401]

How fast did you strip the water? Sudden impacts wreak damage also.

 

[ReefandClimb]

Alk tests 10 with API, calc tests 400-420 with API and 500 with Hanna. The change happened pretty quick, over about two werks


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[dannyp02908]

I would bring the alk down a couple dkh if you plan on keeping very low nutrients. What do you have for lighting?

 

[RichardinMA]

My color is never as good when I try to run ULNS. I have more than enough PAR in my tank and when my nutrients are stripped clean, so are my colors. It is a bit frustrating as my best color happens when I get pits of algae here and there. It's always a balance.

 

[wpeterson]

Maybe you should feed your corals? We've been working to reduce our nutrients in our tank with good luck combined with feeding.

Small doses of phytoplankton and zooplankton (I feed 5ml each, once a week in a 29 gal) have kept corals down while we reduce nutrients.

I like to feed the day before we do our weekly water changes, so the corals have time to absorb it before we dilute things back down with a big water change.

 

[RichardinMA]

My only issue with feeding is that I have yet to find something that I can put into my tank and visually confirm that my SPS are consuming. There are plenty of things that I have found that will cause polyp retraction that could be perceived as eating, but I just have never seen, for myself, actual consumption of particles. Perhaps it is happening. I don't totally discount it and if you are seeing results then by all means keep doing it.

I am not big at all on any bottled this or that anyway. I have tried things over the years and have just not found anything that has made a big difference in my tanks, except for one. I saw a review about Acropower not too long ago and decided to try it in my SPS tank. I have to admit that it has made a noticeable difference in growth that I had not seen before. Within about ten days of using it I noticed the tips of most species were showing very noticeable growth that was far faster than normal. I also noticed a couple species that grew very little were also now jump started and pushing out new axial corallites. It is one product I will continue to use and can actually recommend. I don't think it is going to turn brown corals red and purple, or stop STN or actually fix problems, but if your parameters are good and the corals doing "ok" otherwise, I think it can make a huge difference.

 

[dannyp02908]

Acro power is amino acids. It is definitely beneficial to SPS corals as they use them up pretty quick.

 

[ReefandClimb]

Thanks for all the feedback. I was feeding photo feast and roti feast twice a week and moved to once a week, two days before water change day. I blamed my high ish nitrates on over feeding, so I've stuck with once a week. I think in gonna go two weeks between water changes or change a smaller volume for a little bit and see if I can "dirty " things up just enough to get the PE I had when they were in for the first few weeks


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[frank180reef]

I really wonder how (broadcast) feeding of the corals help; other than adding eventual un wanted nutrients

I add some photo occasionally for my gonis but it seem very hard to quantify a noticeable difference, so that said why feed??

 

[wpeterson]

I should clarify, I only ever target feed corals and recommend that.

I dose 5ml phyto and 5ml zoo in a glass cup and then add 3-4 turkey basters of tank water to bring up the temperature (I store it in the fridge). Once it's mixed, I turn off all the pumps/filters in the tank, and target feed via turkey baster right onto the non-meat eating corals. This creates a nice little cloud of food that hovers.

Euphilia, for example, will open their mouths right wide (almost 1cm on my largest head) and slowly pull the food in. It's beautiful to see. Takes about 30 minutes for them to consume it.

For ricordeas and other meat eaters, I put some fish pellets in the same glass and squirt a baster full of tank water in, mix it up, then use the baster to target drop pellets right onto the mouths of the corals who will eat them. The pellets slide right out the end of the baster without squirting.

This still leaves a lot of nutrients in the water column, but most of the food gets to the corals directly. I usually do a water change the next day to help export whatever is left.

I also feed the fish right before I feed the corals so their less likely to steal food. The fish always get very curious when the pumps are off and wonder what's going on. My normally reclusive Royal Gramma is all over the tank.

 

[ReefandClimb]

As far as target feeding goes, I have only ever target fed my acans, duncans, and candy canes, when the feeding tentacles are out. I tend to add the phyto and roti feast to some tank water and mix, then I turn off my return so only a powerhead is creating flow and I add the mix with a pipette a little at a time. Then I turn the powerhead off and let the "mix" begin to settle a little, maybe 20-30 minutes. Then I fire up the powerhead for a little flow, and in a few minutes start the return again. I leave my skimmer off overnight.
I'm really not sure if what I'm doing has had anything to do with the recent growth, or if that is related to my recent no nutrient system, or a combination of the two, or a more consistent water change schedule, or the fact that I'm changing 70% each time??